15 Realtors Discuss How Their Real Estate Website Helps Their Business

How does your website help your real estate business?

My website provides me with an opportunity to share my real estate expertise via local community information, data about our subdivisions, and information important to both buyers and sellers. It also gives those visiting my site a way to search any Multiple Listing Service home on the market. For example, consumers who may be relocating to my area can find out a wealth of information about real estate in Warner Robins GA or any of the areas I cover by visiting the web pages dedicated to those communities. There is no better way to become an area real estate expert than to get out and take photos/videos, blog about what you know/see/learn, and share that information online to help others with their local real estate needs.



What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?


Develop a niche that sets you apart from your competition and lets buyers, investors, and sellers know you are the expert on that particular topic, community, subdivision, type of housing, etc. Once you have an outline of what you want to accomplish it is time to roll up your sleeves and create content centered around that niche. If your site has IDX capability (it should), making that information readily available will help keep consumers searching on your site. If your site is a one-stop shop with outstanding information about your niche, consumers will stay, read, search, and call for help when ready to buy or sell a home.

How does your website help your real estate business?

One of the most important things every Realtor should have on their website is local information. For example if you cover ten cities or towns locally a visitor should come away thinking you are the local expert. This is a major key to getting business. One of the better ways to do this is by creating out of this world community pages.

What is a community page you ask? A community page is best described as "everything you wanted to know about a specific place". If you can deliver that to a visitor they are more than likely going to pick up the phone and call you.

When trying to optimize your community pages my best advice would be to make sure you are able to come up in search for phrases a buyer or seller would make in Google when looking for a Realtor to hire. An example search phrase could be real estate agents Westborough MA. If someone does a search like this they are looking to hire a local agent immediately. While this type of search is not done in high volume, it is a money search.

In other words this kind of search phrase is not done often but when it is done the chances of it bringing you an interview skyrocket. Along the same lines, buyers and sellers may get even more descriptive in their search and add the words "top" or "best" in front of real estate agents Westborough MA. Keep this in mind when you are doing your on site, as well as off site SEO. The link above shows off my community page for Westborough Massachusetts. Would you not agree this has some great information for anyone either researching the town or an agent to use? Trust me, I know this works - it is one of the best things I have done for business! Sound intriguing? Here is more information on how to start a real estate community page over at RIS Media. Here you can see even more reasons why this should be an integral part fof your website.

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?

One of the best things besides a community page is an integrated blog. A blog allows you to show the world what you are made of as an agent. The knowledge you possess as an a Realtor can be showcased to the world with a blog. Whether your business model is working with buyer or sellers, a blog can highlight your expertise in what facet of the business you know best. Both buyers and sellers love working with an educated real estate agent.

When you understand this concept and put your content out there for the world to see the results can be magical. Does blogging take time? Yes it does! There are no magic bullets. If you want to get business from having a blog you need to put the time and effort in like anything else in life. Some real estate agents have got the content down but that will only get you so far.

When you are blogging in a crowded ocean with everyone looking for a slice of the first page of Google, you need to have a content marketing game plan. Some of the best real estate blogging tips encompass how to get the word out there once you have hit publish. If you are not marketing your content the chances of being successful drop substantially. The reason why so many real estate bloggers fail is both because of a lack of quality and a total disregard to do any kind of promotional efforts. Does this sound like you? If so you need to start on a journey towards having a weekly content marketing plan! Here an example of how you can go about marketing your real estate community pages. This is just one example. You should be doing this for all of your content. Keep in mind that one of the best ways to reach more people is to get your content shared by others. How does this happen? You need to create meaningful relationships with people. This starts by sharing other peoples content. Trust me when you give you will get. This is how most bloggers get recognized.

Are you writing thin content and have yet to achieve any business from blogging? Half the battle has been won if you take the time to follow the advice you have been presented!

How does your website help your real estate business?

My website is one of our most useful marketing tools.  We provide users with a friendly MLS search so they can browse at their convenience.  We also offer information on new construction homes and home values.  The community pages provide information on schools, parks and other amenities homeowners will enjoy.  The blog allows us to provide market updates and useful real estate information.  Providing a useful website brings clients to our door.

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?


The first thing a new agent should decide about their website is what they expect it to accomplish. Is it just a business card you will use for clients you meet through other avenues? Do you want to provide an MLS search and real estate information for clients? Or do you want a lead generating machine?

If you only want a viral business card you can do one of the cheaper, templated sites and achieve that goal. If you want something that users will find “organically” you may need something more. You will need to invest more time and money in writing original content. You can hire someone to write content but that can get expensive.

There are companies that offer “lead generation” websites. Their sites tend to look similar and most limit how many they offer in each area. CINC (Commissions Inc), Boomtown, Tigerleads and Kunversion are all example of a lead gen website company. Those sites are not cheap. They are not designed to rank well organically but rely on PPC to generate leads. You shouldn’t go into one of those sites without having a PPC budget.

Explore different vendors until you find one that fits your goals and your budget. Be cautious about who you end up hiring. Talk with other agents to find out who designed their sites.

The bottom line, even the best website won’t help you succeed if you aren’t prepared to follow up. Make sure you have a routine that allows you to respond quick when users register on your site. The sooner you get to them, the better your chances are to convert them into actual clients.

How does your website help your real estate business?

My websites are my biggest source of new business and clients. Your website can be your best "employee" on your team. Your website never gets tired, never gets sick, never wants a raise and is willing to work for you 24/7.

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?

If you want to have a successful website, spend the time to learn the workings of SEO. Like anything worth having, the more time you spend learning about and building your website, the more success you can expect in return.

How does your website help your real estate business?

A lot of real estate agents think that the number one goal of a website is to generate leads. After being involved in the online marketing world for over 10 years now, I can conclude that is the biggest shortsightedness anyone can have. It’s like trying to look through the binoculars in the opposite direction. 

Getting leads through your website should be the byproduct of the value that people receive when they visit your website. Visitor’s experience shouldn’t be about the experience of becoming a lead. In short, your website needs to offer an exceptional user experience, full of value, so that because of the trust you’d created, they will want to become your clients. 

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?

A website is only temporary, just like a business card. In 2-3 years technology gets ahead of itself and you will be revamping it or simply throwing it away for a better one. Be careful with how much money you spend on it until you are well established in your business. In the beginning, a simple template website should suffice. 

Once you’d figured out your market niche and discovered your marketing talents, only then it makes sense to spend serious money on cutting edge technology. The “build it and they will come” mentality is a dangerous concept to get caught up in today’s market. There is too much competition who's marketing budgets will be hard to match. 

How does your website help your real estate business?

Our website helps our real estate business in several ways. In today's internet centric world, home buyers and sellers often do an online search to research an agent, as well as to search for homes and neighborhood information, and more. Having a website is a must for any business, entrepreneur or company today. A real estate agent's website is first and foremost their online home, where they can craft their message, display their expertise, offer valuable information for buyers and sellers, show listings, and market their services. A website, if done correctly, can be a great source of buyer and seller leads. Through a well-crafted website and supporting social media presence, a real estate agent has the opportunity to position themselves as the local expert in all things real estate.

Our website has become a rich source of organic leads from buyers and sellers looking for nuanced, local and niche information. As we create original content, whether it be blog articles, videos, infographics or neighborhood and community pages, buyers and sellers who are searching for this information find us organically. Many times they contact us, believing we are the local experts. After eight years of building an online presence, we are seeing wonderful results.

We also have occasion to do pay-per-click lead generation from a specific property search website, and find that is also a good source of leads. Even on this site, we add blog posts and local neighborhood information that buyers and sellers find valuable. A website is really all about bringing value to online searchers.

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?

Not all websites are the same. I'm a big fan of owning your own custom site. If you are going to invest in a real estate website, don't be fooled by the template websites that 100,000+ other agents have. Your website will be nothing more than an expensive business card in outer space, without a lot of expensive SEO and hard work to make it stand out from the rest. My recommendation is to pay the price up front, get a custom website, preferably Wordpress, my favorite platform for SEO reasons, and make sure you have a blog. If you own your site, no one can ever make a change that results in negative consequences, nor can take away your content.

How does your website help your real estate business?

My real estate website is the most important piece of my real estate business. My website, Rochester’s Real Estate Blog, gives me the opportunity not only to share my expertise on various real estate related topics but also allows prospective buyers and sellers to learn about who I am personally. In addition, my website gives me an opportunity to give lots of exposure to my sellers homes that I’m selling which is extremely important.

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?

The biggest piece of advice I can give to someone who is just starting their own real estate website is to ensure you’re keeping the content fresh.  Not only does having an active real estate blog show prospective clients that you’re an expert in your field but also is hugely important when it comes to SERPs.  A website that is consistently providing fresh content will rank higher than a website that hasn’t had a fresh piece of content in months almost every single time!

How does your website help your real estate business?

Nothing has helped me succeed in Real Estate more than my own Real Estate website. The number one reason for that is my ability to be found online by local customers and referral partners seeking help to sell a home or buy a home, which is made possible through my Real Estate site’s content.  With the content management plan that I’ve employed over the years, it has enabled me to be found online for certain key terms and target markets that I aim for in my Real Estate business.

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?

Promote yourself as a Real Estate Agent who knows Real Estate.  Educate yourself to do this. Highlight yourself as a local Real Estate Agent who is an expert at selling homes in an area you choose to sell homes in and make this be known on your Real Estate website, not on someone else’s website. You can do this by writing valuable Real Estate content. It’s not simply by spewing out a few hundred words, but rather by crafting in-depth content on typical Real Estate scenarios that often answer customer’s questions. Provide articles that are going to make the sale of a home or the purchase of a home as easy as possible for those getting ready to enter into in a Real Estate transaction.

How does your website help your real estate business?

My real estate website helps me by allowing me to have a presence locally online. It has given me the opportunity to connect with new clients and even other professionals within the community. 

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?

Start off small. Do not attempt to go after the super competitive keywords like "[your city] homes for sale”. Instead, focus on a smaller neighborhood or community.

Create a Page for that community or zip code. (Min. 1,000 words & 3-5 pictures) Post once a week for 4 to 6 weeks about local events, festivals, neighborhood parks, or any new developments.

After 4 to 6 weeks. Pick a new community and repeat. Overtime you should see results and will start showing up in the SERP's. 

How does your website help your real estate business?

My real estate website has helped me in 3 major ways.

Organic Buyer Leads - By far the best part of my real estate website is the number of leads that register. In October, my real estate website in Raleigh NC is on pace for 60+ new leads and should have another 60+ returning leads. This is twice the amount we had in September. These numbers have been growing steadily from when we first launched our real estate website. When buyers search homes for sale in Raleigh NC we need to be out in front of them as a great local resource.

Reaching an Audience - Writing articles for buyers and sellers gives us an opportunity to connect with people on a different level. We are not selling, we are providing information of value to assist someone who is looking to learn more about real estate. When we are able to connect with consumers early on, in a way that showcases expertise and provides value they are more likely to want to work with us. We have also found that our real estate website builds great relationships with other Realtors who add us to their referral network.

Brandability - When people interact with Raleigh Realty, whether it’s online or in person their experience needs to be incredible. Our real estate website is a great way for us to build our brand. When people visit our website 8+ times the Raleigh Realty name sticks. We have found that most of our organic traffic is from people googling “Raleigh Realty.” Our click through rate for this search phrase has sky-rocketed over the last few months proving that our visitors are coming back time and time again!

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?

Building community pages is one of the best things I did for my website because it helps people who are searching homes for sale in that specific neighborhood. Even building pages for subdivisions. For instance, anyone who is searching homes for sale in Cary, NC inside the Preston subdivision will find my website a great resource.

Other than that…. Just do it.

Don’t talk about it - dive in and get going. Find people who are having success and learn from them. One of the best things I did when I decided to begin building the best real estate website in Raleigh NC was to learn from the best. They taught me the importance of community pages. Every day I would be on the real estate websites that belonged to some of the best realtors online. I studied what worked, and learned to apply those same tactics to my real estate site. Now it’s your turn!

Here's an interview I recently did with Tyler Zey at Easy Agent Pro explaining how I got started myself.

How does your website help your real estate business?

My website, and in particular my blog, help me demonstrate my knowledge and passion in the field of real estate.  My blog helps educate clients before they come in the door. It makes the process of getting to know my clients much easier since they have already read about many of my thoughts and ideas.  From an SEO aspect having great articles that are shared with other Realtors makes Google take notice more of our websites, which helps bring clients in.

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?


Number one piece of advice would be to remain consistent with the website.  Like anything in life, success rarely comes instantly overnight.  With a blog and website, you must consistently write blog articles and put up video and audio content so that people can find you and learn from you.  The real estate website is a process that takes patience and a determination to keep working at it.  Give it up and walk away and you lose all the time you put into it and will eventually lose any traction you were getting.

How does your website help your real estate business?

My websites are crucial for lead generation mostly.  Although I do use them as platform for my blog and community information. Driving traffic to the websites is a huge part of my budget annually. Having a quality website can be the reason you get a client or don't.....

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?


Use a professional.  Spend the money and do it right the first time. Your website is your single biggest asset.  Choose your name carefully and make sure it's tells the consumer what you do &/or who you are. 

How does your website help your real estate business?

Let's just say, if it weren't for our website, we wouldn't be in the real estate business! One of the beauties of real estate, is the myriad of ways to cultivate business. Many agents are amazing at cold calling or door knocking. Others have the gift of non-stop personal networking - organizing popular community events, etc. Unfortunately, I have none of those talents!

What I DO have, is a passion for e-commerce, and an obsession for creating an online sales funnel, no matter what the product is. So, I'm in the same business I've been in for over 10 years - only now, the "product" is homes, rather than printed cards & stationery.
At present, our traffic source at RealFX.com is entirely organic. But whether it be organic, PPC or social media, our website presence is absolutely paramount to our success with generating contacts, both locally and across the country. Of course, repeat business, listings & referrals naturally increase - but our website will likely remain the primary source of new revenue.

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?


After analyzing countless real estate websites, I'd have to say my #1 piece of advice would be to take the time to PLAN the site structure - meaning the navigational flow, and the hierarchy of community pages and related content. The failure to do so, can mean months (or years) of lost traffic and lackluster performance.

With all the excitement of getting a site online, too many websites end-up structured very poorly, with little thought to how the search engines will crawl the site, and moreover, how users will search. To be perfectly blunt, the result too often is a disjointed mess - which thankfully is entirely preventable.

Understandably though, most agents aren't website experts, so I partly blame this common issue on the lack of proper implementation, support & training from website providers. Bottom-line, I cannot stress enough how critically important the navigation structure is to domain health, organic rankings - and ultimately conversions (or lack-thereof). 

So, take the time to do it right from the beginning - before Google ever sees the new site. I suggest visualizing the navigation structure using a spreadsheet or an online mind-mapping tool like MindMeister.

How does your website help your real estate business?

The Biggest Benefit I have received having my own website is being able to showcase what I do, which is NOT like a ‘Typical’ Real Estate Agent. I am a Relocation Specialist who ‘Refers’ my new and past clients to agents across the U.S., and internationally as well. This is what I have done for the past 18 out of 28 years in real estate. I brought in over 300 corporate accounts to my father's company.
Then I switched to Prudential HWWB Realtors, which is now Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices HWWB as of Feb. 2013.

So, when I was able to bring together all my accounts I found a Web designer who helped me Showcase the differences by writing a blog. I was then exposed (for the first time) to the other top agents listed here, in other parts of the country. After reading their blogs for a couple months, I began blogging as well. This gained additional recognition and higher SEO results to my own website as we share articles back and forth that have great content for buyers and sellers everywhere. On my website, there is also a ‘Lead Capture Aspect’, as people read over the Blog, testimonials, and search for homes on the IDX feed through our local MLS.

Everybody’s website is different – so to be able to make yourself stand out is Very Important.

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?


My #1 piece of advice to anyone thinking of starting a new website would be to “Learn to Blog”. This was something I was very hesitant in doing, because of the time involved – but now I absolutely, love it. My Blog, has brought more exposure to my website thru LinkedIn, FB, Twitter and G+, as I share the articles I write on these sites and collaborate with the top REALTORS in the Country!

How does your website help your real estate business?

My website is the anchor for everything that I do online. It all points back to my website. It manages my database, controls my email campaigns, and even offers a start to finish lead management system for all of the agents in my company. When I’m working with clients, I use my website to share knowledge through blog posts and market statistics. I also use it to setup new home alerts and share new listings with clients. My clients use it to communicate back with me as well. I also use my website as a platform to collaborate with other professionals, like in this article. Some of my articles are written for local consumers and some are meant to help real estate professionals. It’s a great way to share experience and knowledge.

All in all, my website is the control system for my business, and the platform that gives me a voice in the local community, as well as the real estate community. After running my business off of real estate websites for years, I would be completely lost without it.

What would be your #1 piece of advice to anyone currently planning to start a real estate website?


Do your homework! I have had multiple websites within the past few years and a few of the vendors I’ve worked with have been very difficult to deal with. Many real estate website providers are not as current with their coding and user experience as they would lead you to believe. Everyone will tell you why they’re awesome, but it’s up to you to figure our why they are not. Once you are using a website provider, you are partnering with them in a complex relationship. It can be difficult to switch gears later and move to another company if you need to. You can lose valuable database info and current users of your site when you switch. Talk to other agents who use the service your interested in to see how their experience has been. They’ll usually give you the pros AND CONS. When you talk to vendors, you will typically only get their pros.

Lastly, you need to know your technical limitations. If you are not very technically inclined, you may waste hundreds of hours trying to dial in a website to work for you. There is no company that I know of where you can buy a website and have it do all of the work for you. First, you’ll need to set it up, then you’ll need to constantly work it and promote it to be successful with it. You’ll also need to be creative on how you get it in front of people online. Knowing this up front can help you avoid headaches later on.